Improvement in folding chairs



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER W. STEWART, 013 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN FOLDING CHAIRS Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 130,327, dated August 6, 1872. v

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER W. STEW- ART, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts,'have invented an Improved Folding Ghair; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawing' which accompanies and forms part of this specification, is a description of my invention suflicient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

United States Letters Patent No. 102,180, dated April 19, 1870, were granted to me for an improved folding chair, the seat in such chair being shown as pivoted to ears or brackets fastened to one of the leg-frames in such manner that the seat, in folding, can assume a position parallel to said leg-frame.

In the chair embodying my present invention the seat and leg-frame are similarly pivoted; but instead of limiting the extent of opening or spread of the frame (to form the open chair) by hooks or stops under the chairsea-t, against which hooks or stops the stretcher-bar under the seat strikes, I hinge to the bottom stretcher of one end of the leg-frames a back-frame and extend the leg-pieces of the other frame upward, making through each piece a slot, through which a stop-pin projects into the back-frame. When the chair is closed the back-frame swings up into a general plane with the leg-frames, the pins sliding down the slots, while when the chair is opened the pins slide in the opposite direction, and, reaching the tops of the slots, form stops (in connection with the heads of the slots) to hold the parts in relative and fixed position. It is in such an organization that my present invention consists.

The drawing represents, in side elevation, (open,) and in sectional elevation, (closed,) and in fragmentary rear elevation, a chair embodying my present invention.

a b denote the two side legs, which extend at bottom to the front, and constitute, with the stretcher 0, one of the leg-frames. d 6 denote the other legs, which extend at bottom to the rear, and constitute, with the two stretchers f g, the other leg-frame, the two frames crossing and being pivoted together by screws or pins h, the seat 43 being hung to the ears or brackets k is extending from the upward extension of the leg-frame a b 0, while at or toward its front the seat rests upon the stretcher g, the seat 2' and two leg-frames, when closed up, assuming the position and relation shown at B. The frame a b 0 does not extend up to form the back-frame; but instead thereof the two side bars of a back-frame, l, are hinged to the stretcher f, as seen at m, and, extending upward, are connected to the leg-frame by pins n extending through slots 0 cut through the frame-bars, these slots and the location of the hinges and pins bringing the back into the position seen at A when the chair is open, (the pins and tops of the slots serving as stops,) and theslots and pins and hinges enabling the parts to fold together, as seen at B. By this arrangement not only is a very strong construction secured, but also a back-frame more nearly vertical and having a much better position for support of the back of the occupant of the chair. In folding the chair the seat tips down at the front, as seen at B.

Figure 0 shows a partial rear View.

I claim The combination of the seat, leg-frames, and back-frame, when all are arranged and connected and operated as shown and described.

ALEXR'W'. STEWART.

Witnesses FRANCIS GoULD, M. W. FROTHINGHAM. 

